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Despite preventative and scheduled maintenance regimes, from time-to-time assets will fail unexpectedly, leading to costly contractor visits to repair, or even replace the broken asset.
Fuel and convenience stores are complex businesses incorporating many critical assets which are essential to their day-to-day operations, operational excellence, and customer satisfaction.
Effective asset management can be time consuming. For this reason, one specific aspect of asset management that is often overlooked is the management and tracking of warranties.
Here are five reasons why fuel retailers should not ignore warranty tracking:
1. Lower your maintenance spend
One of the most obvious and visible benefits of tracking asset warranties is reducing, or removing, costs from your fuel and retail store maintenance operation.
If an affected asset is under warranty, then the repair or replacement costs could be covered by the manufacturer or warranty provider, rather by the retailer.
Urgent tracks asset warranties and automatically sends work orders under warranty directly to the manufacturer. Techniche data shows that full-service forecourts – those with retail, food and beverage offerings, and car wash and valeting equipment – can expect to save £2,500 per site per year when tracking and using asset warranties – a figure that really adds up!
2. Reduce asset downtime
Breakdowns of critical assets impact your customers’ experience, satisfaction and, of course, your revenue. If a warranty is being correctly tracked and work orders automatically dispatched to the correct service provider, then repairs can be conducted more quickly and efficiently, getting the asset back in action and generating revenue again soon.
Fuel retailers using Urgent to manage their asset maintenance management and warranty tracking have an asset uptime of more than 99% for their fuel dispensing assets.
3. Stay compliant
Dispatching work orders to the correct service provider quickly and efficiently is important whether an asset is under warranty or not. For those assets that are subject to regulatory requirements, such as those involved in fuel storage and dispensing, it is important have any faults repaired as quickly as possible. Not only do they risk disrupting operations and sales, but they can pose risks to safety and the environment, such as electrical hazards and fuel leaks. Having an effective asset warranty tracking system in place ensures that you are always aware of your coverage and can plan appropriately.
4. Plan preventative and scheduled maintenance
Asset warranty tracking should form part of an overall asset management strategy that also includes regular servicing and timely repairs. Many warranty agreements include a requirement for preventative maintenance and servicing, which help prolong the life of an asset.
By undertaking the required and recommended preventative maintenance activities, operators can ensure that their sites remain in optimal working order – not only reducing the number of asset breakdowns, but also their severity, meaning that issues can be resolved more quickly and efficiently, reducing unbudgeted maintenance cost.
5. Budgeting and asset replacement
Armed with a complete picture of the warranty status for the major assets in your estate, makes budgeting for potential repairs or future asset replacement – including upgrades to more efficient equipment – more accurate and straightforward. This approach to budgeting helps avoid unexpected expenses that could disrupt a site or operator’s financial stability.
Tracking asset warranties should not be viewed as an admin burden. It plays a crucial role in a fuel retailer’s operations. Using an asset maintenance and management platform, such as Urgent, to keep track of your warranties, means asset downtime can be minimised, revenue maximised, costs controlled and asset life prolonged, all while continuing to deliver exceptional customer experience.
